It is exactly what I need now. I started to work on my first coloring book in AI and created a few pages so far. Then I learned from you About Affinity and bought all three programs. Using Affinity is so much easier but I just started to learn it. Thank you very much for making the video - you saved me a tremendous amount of time and effort. I already started to post my LK books on KDP and made my first three sales this month. This is all thanks to you.
Ive watched numerous videos about how to make vectors for my art and I considered it above my level. Your the only one to make it understandable. Thank you so much! Gamechanger..
I think it would be many times faster, (this is for artwork drawn on paper, not digital), to have your image drawn very close to the size you want it to be alrerady (so if your coloring book was supposed to be a finished size of 8.5" x 11"), then make the artwork's finished size the size you would put in the book, determined by making it to fit inside required margins. Make sure the final drawing is done in a dark (soft) pencil, or pen and ink, or quality black marker. Then scan it at 300 dpi, (or take a photo with your digital camera or mobile device), and bring it into Adobe Illustrator or similar vector based program that has the ability to perform what is known as an "Image Trace". You may have to do a few tests with the settings to get the finished, image-traced art exactly the way you want it, (or not 😊) but usually it's just right and read-to-use. It will be a vector image and you can then adjust it to fit your coloring book page even a little more, very easily if necessary. You can always use it again and again, by resizing it smaller or layer it above or below other vector images (like a mandela, etc). But overall, to me, traced images from photos ALWAYS look like traced images from photos, and unless done by a professional artist, those traced drawings look very unappealing to use in a coloring book, unless it's an inanimate object like a building, car, bridge, truck, furniture, appliances, etc. Tracing photos of animals and humans, etc, just look from very poorly done to uninspired at best, and I would never buy a whole coloring book of those types of traced images. Just because everyone can create "art" now-a-days, doesn't mean it's art at all.
Thanks for the info on image trace, I'll be interested to try both methods. I can see where if you have a "sketchy " image you want to use, , the pen tool method would work a lot better. But for a more defined image, using image trace might be the way to go.
@@KathleenRenninger What method & softwrare do you think would be easier & most suitable to convert complex hand drawn artwork into digital art for colouring book? I'm a complete beginner. Thanks Donna
Lucky me that I found your video right away. Clear and concise teaching. And unlike so many others you put the focus on the subject matter, so I don't feel like I'm watching someone trying to be a You Tube celebrity. Also refreshing-I don't feel that I'm being sold some "get rich quick" idea. Many thanks! I'm looking forward to checking out your other videos.
Thanks for this, so very helpful. One thing I didn't see you mention, and don't see it in comments - I think it is important, from what I've read, that you want to have a blank page, but not really a blank page (maybe a small logo, or copyright) since kdp doesn't like blank pages, in between each image as kdp paper is thin and for those who color in other than pencil or crayon it will bleed through and ruin the image on the other side of the page.
Thank you so much; this has given me exactly what I needed! I never really understood bezier curves , but do now. Also, I didn't know about art boards. Love your tutorials!
This was a big help to visualize the idea of making a coloring book. I had recently though of using my Wacom to trace out the photos I have from my photography business. In general this way of designing the coloring books avoids the copyright issues, duplicating what others may have chosen to download from free sites and offers an unlimited stock of free images that can be used. The method you covered also revealed that artistic talent though a help to see a good image versus a less interesting image is alleviated. The effort and tension to do an all in one image is made simpler because of the use of layers. The software used here is my choice over my Adobe products and through your course has allowed me to get into the LCP business. Thanks for your continued efforts to help all of us gain understanding and confidence in this line of work. Wish you and your husband and first child, well with the new addition.
I believe I'm doing this. I made a page of a fox, original art, after seeing your clip-art coloring book video. It was real paper and ink. I should Twitter that at you. This is pretty much that same idea. And a good enough reason to follow through.
In regards to previous attempts to make a coloring book my first attempt was to use Affinity Designer to create Mandalas. I researched my product with local people and the issue of overly complex designs was a common statement. Here in this lesson that issue is eliminated and allows for a larger group of people to be interested in the designs and images made with this method. I have high hopes that I can offer more unique products with this process.
Hey @Rachel Harrison-Sund - yes, I am arty-farty and I've created a couple of colouring books using Keynote for Mac (presentation software like Powerpoint, for those unfamiliar). I love it! I even create characters (drawing with a mouse, like nobody else I know!). Keeps the brain vibrant :D The covers are created in Canva, so straightforward and gives great results. 💜
Rachel Harrison-Sund Thanks for your response. I would be hard pressed to name one thing. But I do really like that is is only £20 for us in the UK where as for the desktop version it’s £48.99 (if memory serves me correctly) It is also very light weight and portable being on the iPad, I do like designing on the couch and in bed too. I’ve even taken it out and about with me, when I’ve been able to get out and about. Of course a laptop can do the same thing but with an iPad I don’t need a graphics tablet too. I just need my iPad and Apple Pencil (of course I realise there are some laptops that have touchscreen and convert into a tablet so there are other ways to be portable but I happen to have an iPad . I couldn’t begin to tell you what the differences are function wise as I’ve not used the desk top version. But the iPad version was very easy to learn and I’ve been able to do everything I want to so far without compromise. But then again Im not a professional digital designer, so I’ve probably just not come across the shortfalls yet. The one downside, I know about, is there is no app for Android, only iPad
Thank you for this! Perfect timing. I've watched a few vids n how to create a colouring book, but they're all different designs from elsewhere and want to do that with my own illustrations that I've been creating over the past year ❤
I love this! I have also recorded myself coloring books but I am not sure if I can upload them to RU-vid and monetize the videos, without copyright issues? The videos are all made by me, but the color books are purchased in a store... Please let me know how you do it! :)
this is awesome!! I started using gravit and so far it’s working well for me. I did want to ask how you would sell coloring books as downloadable printables that a customer could print themselves instead of providing a hard copy.
I heard that we should put blank pages in between because if people use coloring pens, sometimes the color will bleed through. How would we do that here? Just insert a blank artboard in between?
What computers would you recommend to be able to do this. I'm limited in finance and I'm a single mom and I want to find a way to make some digital products with my art but alot of this feels over my head. I subscribed and going to be learning what I can do
I’ve seen a lot of yours and other and you guys leave out a lot of little details that make a person waste time looking for more info. You said you clicked on insert artboard and another just appeared next to your first one, for me it didn’t go next to the first and kept copying my first image. I also vectorized the photo and it created all the nodes’ who knows what I’m supposed to do with that! Just a lot of little things missing.
Hey there... Enjoyed the video :) I am new to KDP and your channel videos are very helpful. Just curious, do I need Affinity publisher when I have affinity designer since i can use the art board to export all pages from affinity designer. In other words, for what purpose will I need the affinity publisher? Thanks again!
Hi, I've recently started making low content books. When researching potential keyword phrases, it seems as though some people say to search under "books" and some say to search in "all". The 2 give vastly different search number results, with a keyword phrase searched under "books" having a much higher number in the result. Since I want to find keywords that have a result of less than 1000, should I be researching keywords under books or all? Thanks for your thoughts!
Hi. Can one use Affinity with iPad? It seems necessary to have use of a mouse to drag items while holding down, etc. I’d prefer iPad but think it’s not reasonable. Thank you
I guess I'm confused. If I have original black and white artwork can't I just scan the pages as .pdf's and use those? This seems like a lot of work to redo each original piece. Especially if they are very detailed. I'm just getting ready to make my first book... doing the research and have a lot of questions. Your videos are helpful... thanks.
Could I fill the shapes with an imported background pattern? Like doing the main part of his hat and jacket in a line zen tangle pattern, for instance?
New video idea/question.. when making a book with bleed, do I need to fill in the entire page out to the bleed lines? I'm confused because the bleed space is blank and not white by default.
I'm thinking about using my photographs converted into B&W and then make these, I suppose, into vectors. Is that a way to go? I do have PS and Lightroom. The book would be for adults.
If we use a photograph found, say, in a text book and trace over it to make a 'cartoon' style colouring page, do we run into copyright issues? Give credit in the book somewhere? (I am a science teacher, wanting to make science colouring books) Thank you
Hi Iain! I did another video on exactly this, which you can find here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bKUud191jhg.html The main thing is to always adhere to image licences when modifying stock imagery that you've downloaded for commercial purposes. Once you've found an image you'd like to use read the licence and ensure that you're allowed to modify it and then use it commercially (if that's what you intend), and also be sure to attribute if necessary.
Thanks Rachel for the video, Is it possible to create a coloring book without having a drawing background, I mean, is there a way to find ready illustrations that we can adapt to the coloring book format?
Hi Rachel. Perhaps you could advise me on the best pdf export settings for Kdp using affiinity designer/publisher. I'm finding an issue with all my pdfs that ive created in affinity designer , the colours are subdued with a slight brownish tint to them when exporting to pdf. they look fine in the app as pdfs or jpegs but as soon as i upload them to kdp i see the strange tinge. I can use the very same jpeg uploaded to canva and then down loaded as the high quality print pdf from canva and the colour looks fine and bright even though its originally from affinity designer. Ive tried all kinds of different export options incl cmyk and different pdf versions like the kdp recommended PDF/X-1a and the newer versions but the result is the same. It seems silly to have to use canva to save all my colour cover and manuscript files just to get good results when i have affinity designer. Just wondering if you have ever encountered a similar issue and if so could you advise on a solution? thank you. kavan
I've made several adult and youth coloring books for work (obviously I can't sell these because they're branded to my workplace) using hand drawn images and Adobe Illustrator to finish it off. I'm currently in the process of making one for my sister and have several others I want to make but am currently using Procreate on my iPad. Is it okay or do I need to use these other programs instead?
I registered with KDP and got an email that my colouring book doesn’t suite their format! I’m not sure why and coloring books were one of the items listed that they don’t publish! I’m confused.
Dear Rachel, I am a graphic designer / illustrator. Chris A. LeCocq. Now I have seen your video about creating a coloring book. Now, how do I just use my own hand drawn artwork, NOT create, by the Illustrator or the other programs, as I do not like the line work when created with the "machine" look. Is there a way to scan in the illustration at 300dpi, set up the pages as one would do for PRINT. I find anyone can lift art and sell it and they all look the same. I do not want to produce a book that looks like everyone else's. Can I set up the book as I want it and PDF it and submit to an on line publishing format?
Hi Chris, have you found an easy way to digitalize your own hand drawn artwork? I've got same problem, would love to know how you're doing. Thanks Donna
